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FROM THE FARM UP AND ON AND ALWAYS 

HIS EXCELLENCY 

CALVIN COOLIDGE 

GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS 

Republican Candidate for 
Vice-President of the United States 



HIS FIRST BIOGRAPHY 

PUBLISHED BY 

THE ROOSEVELT CLUB 

(incorporated) 
FOR ITS MEMBERS 

BOSTON 1920 



"SEEST THOU A MAN DILIGENT IN HIS BUSINESS. 
HE SHALL STAND BEFORE KINGS" 



OMNIA PRAETER STREPITUM ET CLAMOREM 



A 

DRIEF 



lOGRAPHY OF 



CALVIN 
OOLIDGE 



FROM CORNERSTONE TO CAPSTONE 
THE ABC 



Tfo-o^w-tJUu : ' /qW'C. 



Copyright 1".)20 by 

Robert M. Washburn 

Hoston, Mass. 



Second Edition 







IN THE EXECUTIVE CHAMBER 
Calvin Coolidgc, Jr. 5 Col. John C.CooIidge; John Coolidge ; Mrs. Calvin Coolidge 






CHAPTER 1. 

The Cornerstone. 

' Allurei to brighter worlds, and led the way " 

— Goldsinitk 



K 




MOTHER OF CALVIN COOLIDGE 



"About his cradle all was poor and mean save only the source of all great men, the 
love of a wonderful woman. When she faded away in his tender years, from her death bed 
in humble poverty she dowered her son with greatness. There can be no proper observ- 
ance of a birthday which forgets the mother" — Lincoln Day Proclaiiintion — 79/9 



AN ENDORSEMENT OF CHAPTER 2. 

(copy) 
Republicax National Committee. 

Publicity Departmext. New Youk City, 

July 13, 1920. 
The Roosevelt Club, 

89 State Street, Boston. 

Dear Sirs : — 

Senator Harding has brought to my attention your letter to 
him, under date of July 3rd, with the enclosed tribute to 
Calvin Coolidge. It is admirable, and will be used in the 
campaign. 

Yours truly, 

Scott C. Boxe, Director. 



CHAPTER 2. 

The Governor. 

Massachusetts has probably never seen a man prominent in 
public life like him. No one thinks of opposing him, and his 
great strength has come to him, he has not gone to it. He has 
never been known to make the usual moves towards political 
preferment. Most men impress one with trying to shape their 
own political fortunes, he appears indifferent. He has been 
content to rest his political hopes, if he has had any, on the 
political duties he has had to perform, however humble. The 
great reason for his political success is his own personality, 
which appeals to one not for what it appears to be but for 
what it is. Unlike most politicians, he does not play a part, he 
is himself. He talks only when he has something to say, but he 
listens respectfully whether there is something to hear or not. 
He has humor. He can make a joke and enjoy a joke but 
he does not use humor only to make for others amusement or 
for himself votes. A nod from him upon the street is better 
than an ebullition from another and even this is unnecessary 
for he is known to be a democrat. He has come, surely, though 
slowly. Even in his second year in the House, in 1908, he was 
then not regarded as a leader because he had not been in 
political life long enough to be known, and because things 
went after him and not because he went after things. When 
he was Chairman of the important Committee on Railroads, he 
was a chairman who presided; a man who made no unneces- 
sary motions of mouth or of body. He never wrote when 
he could talk, and he never talked when he could nod. He 
was never opposed, personally ; he has no enemies in the usual 
sense. Few men have fewer critics. He has had as intelligent 
and as detailed a knowledge of the bills he had to pass on as 
any man in the State House. He sees only one side of a ques- 
tion, its merits. He has shown independence as a legislator, 
and is as quick to stand by the weak when they are right as to- 

5 



leave power when it is wroug. He has had as little newspaper 
notice as any man of his prominence. This has been because 
he has avoided it. His speeches have been unique and strong 
for their thought and for their epigrammatic brevity. His 
political strength is largely because the public have been curi- 
ous to study the personality of the only man of that kind they 
have seen. The more of the man they studied, the more of a 
man they found. He has ambition, patience, tenacity, and 
self-control, qualities which enable one to stand before kings. 
It is not a common sensation for the electorate to be able to 
exercise its option in the men they honor, to ask for a man 
rather than simply to have to take him. As Lieutenant Gov- 
ernor he has been loyal to the Governor to a degree too seldom 
found among his predecessors. His life has enabled him to 
know and to understand all sorts of men, for he has been of 
them. These men made him Governor, for they liked him, 
for his originality, his modesty, his democracy, and his 
ability. Most men are content to be honored by the office 
they seek. He gives a dignity to the many high honors which 
have seemed naturally to come to him. He is more of an asset 
to public office than public office is an asset to him. He is a 
character exceeded by none in interest for study, still incom- 
plete, probably always incomplete. "When, pursuant to a fine 
tradition, in early January, 1919, the cannon upon the Com- 
mon proclaimed to the people of ^lassachusetts that the hills 
of her sister state, Vermont, had given them a chief executive, 
those who would learn to live knew that merit and fortune 
sometimes walk hand in hand, and that the Commonwealth 
had, again, the sort of Governor she ought to have, measuring 
up to her high ideals. Such a man is Calvin Coolidge. 



CHAPTER 3. 



[This is an intimate biography. More than this, it is an honest 
biography, to be recognized by those of liis own household, by whom, 
only, is a man kno%Yn. •' Paint me as I am, every line, every scar."] 



Looking Backward. 
The First Days. 

Oil July 4, 1872, 48 years ago, in^ the coluiniis of a iiews 
sheet, ' ' The Blueberiy, ' ' which succeeded occasionally in mak- 
ing- its appearance in the town of Plymouth, Vt., appeared the 
laconic entry, ^'Born, to Victoria J. ]\Ioor and John Calvin 
Coolidge. a man child. John Calvin, Jr." These tidings of 
great joy did not cause banks to close or business to be tied 
up, for that was a country of farmers only, and those that 
read it were tillers of the soil and not seers. However, the lit- 
tle stranger, with a foresight, sound and characteristic, had 
chosen, as the day of his advent, one which the neighbors were 
bound to celebrate. 

The child, an auburn-haired, smooth-faced babe, with a 
proboscis somewhat attenuated, was as unique, as he lay in 
his cradle, as he was to be as a man. He seemed troubled. The 
atmosphere of ambition enshrouded him. He seemed restless, 
and anxious for change and for progress. The baubles which 
divert and stimulate the prosaic young, seemingly, had no 
charm for him, nor did anything Avhich tender hearts or wise 
heads could plan. He lay in his new bed and cried, and when 
he tired of crying, he wept, and then he cried again. All this, 
apparently, v.ith deliberation, and for a purpose, and as a 
means to an end. For the first effort of the child, and the 
man has been always, not to play, but to think. 

A mother, solicitous through unselfish love, sat by his side, 
intent upon bringing him peace ; and a father, with the more 
selfish purpose of sleep. The family physician bent over the 
crib, with that rural versatility which had familiarized him 
with the whole gamut of bodily afflictions, from rheumatics to 
melancholia. Noted psychologists, too, were added to the 
throng, not alone for the advancement of medical science but 
with the hope of solving a problem which seemed to baffle all. 



These all followed his infant gaze as it swept the plain 
walls of that Vermont farm house. They watched his eyes as 
they rested and became riveted upon the only decoration in 
that room, a portrait of that Great Liberator of the Dutch, of 
the low lands of Holland, a Count of Nassau, William Jie 
Silent. And they gave it to the cliild. 

Then peace came to that household, and to its mother. 
The father slept. The general practitioner went his way, 
and the noted specialists returned to the great centers. And 
the child studied the face and the features of the portrait, 
and then, placing the end of one of his small fore-fingers 
upon the mouth of that great prince, and the other upon one 
of his ears, he, too, was content and happy, and he, too, slept, 
and peace overwhelmed that small house and that small 
family. 

And those that sat about the child construed the lessons of 
what they had seen to be: — first, that he, too, would leave 
the hill country of his birth and live close to his adopted 
meadow lands along the banks of the Connecticut; second, 
that he fastened the hopes of the political success that was to 
be his, upon the determination not to talk but to listen, not 
upon the power of speech but upon the possibilities of silence. 
Prom that hour, he then became, and has since continued, 
Calvin the Silent. "^ 



^AND YET 

He has a personality, like his ideal, Abraham Lincoln, unique in 
American politics. 

In the opinion of such men as .Tudge John C. Hammond, of Nortli- 
ampton, in whose oflice he studied ; and Melvin O. Adams and Alfred 
Hemenway, of Boston, the latter an uncle of his former law partner, 
he has a fine legal mind. 

A pre-eminent characteristic, is his power of intelligent, condensed, 
epigrammatic expression. 

His followers have a loyalty, expressed, after the nomination. In 
the words of a young college graduate, that he "was with Ooolidge 
'till the bench broke.' " 

Wlien he was Chairman of the Committee on Railroads, an Anti- 
Corporation lawyer having finished his argument, asked him if he 
could retire. Imperturbably, he replied, "Yes, unless you are willing 
to remain, to protect the Committee from these railroad lawyers, 
present." 



CHAPTER 4/ 
Coming. 

"A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice, 
A banner, with the strange device, 
'Excelsior.' " 

A story of patience — the story of the pendulum, one tick at 
a time — the story of the ladder, one round at a time — no 
jumps. 

Born, July 4, 1872, Plymouth, Vermont. 

Son of John C. Coolidge and Victoria J. Moor. 

Ancestors, settled in Watertown, Mass., 1630. 

Victoria J. Moor Coolidge, died 1885. 

Carrie G. Brown Coolidge, step-mother, who did much to 
make Calvin Coolidge, died 1920. 

Public Schools, Plymouth, Vt. 

Black River Academy, Ludlow% Vt. 

St. Johnsbury Academy, Vt. 

Amherst College, A. B., 1895. Cum laude. Grove oration. 

Senior Year, 1st Prize (open to all colleges). Essay, "Prin- 
ciples, Revolutionary War." 

Removed to Northampton, 1895. 

Studied law with Hammond & Field, Northampton. 

Admitted to Bar, 1897. 

Practicing lawyer, at one time, as Coolidge & Hemenway. 

City Council, 1899. 

9 



City Solicitor, 1900-1901. 

Clerk, Courts, Hampshire Co., 1903. (Months.) 

State Representative, 1907-1908. 

Mayor, 1910-1911. 

State Senator, 1912-1915. 

President of the Senate, 1914-1915. (Unopposed.) 

Lieutenant-Governor, 1916-1918. 

Governor, 1919-1920. (By the largest vote, ever, 1919.) 

Nominated, Vice-President, June 12, 1920, 9 P. M. 

Formal notification at Northampton, .Inly ^7, 1920. 

Honorary Degrees, LL.D., Amherst, Tufts, Williams 
1919 ; Bates, University of Vermont, Wesleyan, 1920. 

Author, "Have Faith in Massachusetts." 

Married Miss Grace A. Goodhue, a teacher, in North- 
ampton, of Burlington, Vt., October 4, 1905. Two 
sons : John, 13 years ; Calvin, Jr., 12 years. 

His family are members, Edwards Congregational Church. 



The Governor has two rooms at the Adams House, Boston. 
He votes in Northampton, where he has one-half of a double, 
wooden house, at 21 Massasoit St., where his family generally 
is. His salary, as Governor, is $10,000 a year. His house 
rental is $32 a month, recently raised from $30. He lives 
Avithin his income. His landlord, it is understood, is ready to 
evict his other tenant for any one who can prove that he has 
been, is, or will be Vice-President of the United States. 

Father: — John C. Coolidge, Plymouth, Vt. Merchant and 
farmer. Ex-State Senator. Ex-State Representative. Col- 
onel on Staff of Former Gov. W. W. Stickney. His only 
other child, Abbie, died in 1889, at the age of 13. 

Father-in-laAv : — iVndrcAv I. Goodliue, Burlington, Vt. 
Steamboat Inspector. 

('This biography is invalual>le for reference because of the facts in this Chapter 
alone.) 

10 



CHAPTER 5. 
Capacity Seizes Opportunity. 





By " Norman." 



" Under the law, I hereby call on all the police of Boston, who have loyally and 
in a never-to-be-forgotten way remained on duty, to aid me in the performance of 
my duty, the restoration and maintenance of order in the City of Boston." 



The Boston Police Strike September 1919 — His High Tide. 

11 



CHAPTER 6.1 

Nominated for Vice-President. 

June 12—1920. 

With a spontaneity unexcelled in convention history. 

Forty-eight years old less 22 days — one year for each star in 

the flag. 



CHAPTER 7.1 

Vice-President. 
March 4—1921-1929. 

From President, Massachusetts Senate ; to President, U. S. 

Senate, 

First Vice-President, Member of Cabinet, Ex-officio by 
Courtesy. 



CHAPTER 8.1 

President. 

March -1—1929-1937. 



^ The length of these chapters is explained by the difficulty of 
securing more exhaustive material. 



CHAPTER 9. 
The Weak Links in his Armor. 



13 



CHAPTER 10. 

The Secret. 
Uncommon Sense. 



Political Philosophy. 

"Do the day's work. If it be to protect the rights of the 
weak, whoever objects, do it. If it be to help a powerful 
corporation better to serve the people, whatever the opposition, 
do that. Expect to be called a stand-patter but don't be a 
stand-patter. Expect to be called a demagogue but don't be 
a demagogue. Don 't hesitate to be as revolutionary as science. 
Don't hesitate to be as reactionary as the multiplication table. 
Don 't expect to build up the weak by pulling down the strong. 
Don't hurry to legislate. Give administration a chance to 
catch up with legislation. 

"We need a broader, firmer, deeper faith in the people — 
a faith that men desire to do right, that the Commonwealth 
is founded upon a righteousness which will endure, a recon- 
structed faith that the final approval of the people is given 
not to demagogues, slavislily pandering to their selfishness, 
merchandising with the clamor of the hour, but to statesmen, 
ministering to their welfare, representing their deep, silent, 
abiding convictions. 

"Statutes must appeal to more than material welfare. 
Wages won't satisfy, be they never so large. Nor houses; 
nor lands; nor coupons, though they fall thick as the leaves 
of autumn. Man has a spiritual nature. Touch it, and it 
must respond as the magnet responds to the pole. To that, 
not to selfishness, let the laws of the Commonwealth appeal. 
Recognize the immortal worth and dignity of man. Let the 
laws of Massachusetts proclaim to her humblest citizen, per- 
forming the most menial task, the recognition of his manhood, 
the recognition that all men are peers, the humblest with the 

14 



most exalted, the recognition that all work is glorified. Such 
is the path to equality before the law. Such is the foundation 
of liberty under the law. Such is the sublime revelation of 
man's relation to man — Democracy." From First Inaugural 
Address to Massachusetts Senate. 



"I am not a candidate for President. I am Governor of 
Massachusetts, and I am content to do my only duty, the 
day's work as such." 

Humor. 

"If you are asked, if I am a candidate for the Presidency, 
tell the truth." 

Modesty. 
"I have never been hurt by what I have not said." 



At three o'clock on the afternoon following his first elec- 
tion as Lieutenant-Governor, when most successful candi- 
dates were easily congratulated in public places, he was found, 
alone, in his room at the Adams House, sitting by a window 
opening into an airshaft. 

In these days, the typical candidate, who has reconciled 
his mind to holding high public office, continues to pursue the 
voter. He effusively simulates a desire to share his cross. He 
seeks to locate the strawberry-mark which identifies the long 
lost brother. As against him, the personality of Calvin Cool- 
idge presents a marked, restful and delicious contrast. He has 
never forgotten, that, if one would have the respect of others, 
he must respect himself. He has taught the voter to recog- 
nize the value of pursuing what is not pursuing him. 



"Although I am Coolidge's friend, and have been for 
years," he said, "I did not really understand him, until 
about a year ago. One day he came in here, and, after 
sitting where you are for the longest time, he said, out of a 
clear sky: 'Do you know, I've never really grown up? It's 
a hard thing for me to play this game. In politics, one must 

1.5 



moot people, ami that's not easy for me.' I exi)ressed as- 
tonishment. 'Xt).' he \vent on, 'it's been hard for me, all my 
life. AVhen I Avas a little fellow, as lonu" aiio as 1 ean remem- 
ber. 1 Avonld fi"o into a panic if 1 heard stranger voices in the 
house. 1 felt 1 just eouldn't meet the people and shake 
hands with llieni. Most of the visitors would sit Avith mother 
and father in the kitehcn and the hardest thing in the world 
Avas to ha\e to go through the kitchen door and give them a 
greeting. I was almost ten before I realized I eouldn't go oij, 
that way. Aiul by fighting hard I used to manage to get 
through that door. I'm all right with old friends, but every 
time 1 meet a stranger I've got to go through the old kitchen- 
iloor, back honu\ and it's not easy." He was silent for a huig 
time after that. Just sat looking out of the window. Then 
he went a\\a\- without another word. He's never mentioned 
the subject since. Nor have I, but I think I can say I under- 
stand Calvin Coolidge now. Does it help to explain him to 
vou ? " 



Courage, his great qiiaJitieafio)!. Law and order, his great 

issue. 

(,'l"ho only litoraturo. of this sort, in iiolitical liistory.) 

[copy] 

Western Union Tei.egram. 

September 13, 1919. 
j\Ir. Sanuiel Oompers, President, 
American Federation of Labor, 
New York City, N. Y. 

Under the law the suggestions contained in your telegram 
are not within tlie authority of the Governor of Massachu- 
setts but only of the Commissioner of Police of the city of 
Boston. With the maintenance of discipline in his depart- 
ment I have no authority to interfere. He has decided that 
the men here abandoned their aworn duty and has accord- 
ingly declared their places vacant. I shall support the Com- 
missioner in the executi(Mi of law and nmintenance of order. 

Calvin (\iolidgi-:. Governor. 
10 



[copy J 

Western Union Telegram. 

Sunday, Sept. 14, 1919. 
Mr. Samuel Gompers, President, 
American Federation of Labor, 
New York City, N. Y. 

Replying to your telegram. I have already refused to re- 
move the Police Commissioner of Boston. I did not appoint 
him. He can assume no position which the Courts would up- 
hold except what the people have by the authority of their 
law vested in him. He speaks only -with their voice. The 
right of the Police of Boston to affiliate has ahvays been 
questioned, never granted, is now prohibited. The sugges- 
tion of President Wilson to Washington does not apply to 
Boston. There the police have remained on duty. Here the 
Policemen's Union left their duty, an action which Presi- 
dent Wilson characterized as a crime against civilization. 
Your assertion that the Commissioner was wrong cannot 
justify the wrong of leaving the City unguarded. That fur- 
nished the opportunity, the criminal element furnished the 
action. There is no right to strike against the puhlic safety 
by anybody, anywhere, any time. You ask that the public 
safety again be placed in the hands of these same police- 
men while they continue in disobedience to the laws of Mas- 
sachusetts and in their refusal to obey the orders of the Po- 
lice Department. Nineteen men have been tried and re- 
moved. Others having al)andoned their duty their places 
have under the law been declared vacant in the opinion of 
the Attorney General. I can suggest no authority outside 
the Courts to take further action. I wish to join and assist 
in taking a broad view of every situation. A grave responsi- 
bility rests on all of us. You can depend on me to sup- 
port you in every legal action and sound policy. I am equally 
determined to defend the sovereignty of Massachusetts and to 
maintain the authority and jurisdiction over her public offi- 
cers where it has been placed by the Constitution and Laws 
of her people, 

Calvin Coolidge, Governor. 



17 



CHAPTER 11. 

The Capstone. 
NOT A TU ACTION-REAPER 

To several thousand noiglibors, at IMymoutli, VI., July 1">, 1920: 

"•Vennont is my birthright. Here, one gets close to nature, 
in the mountains, in the brooks, tlie waters of which hurry to the 
sea; in the hikes, sliinino- like silver in tlieir green setting; tiehls 
tilled, not by machinery but by the brain and hand of man. JMy 
folks are happy ami contented. IMiey belong to tliemselves, live 
within their income, and fear no man." 



lie has never played, boy or man; marbles, base-ball, golf, 
anything. His only avocations liave been the gratiHcation of an 
almost instinctive {)hilosophical sense with the best books; a love 
of nature, and walking. Apparently, he has ordered his life 
wiselv. 



CALVIN COOLIDGE 

PLYMOUTH - NORTHAMPTON — BOSTON — WASHINGTON 

CHARACTER COURAGE EXPERIENCE 
CAPACITY OPPORTUNITY ACHIEVEMENT 

" Here's to the pilot ^vho weathered the storm." 



No man has lived who has not forgotten himself, in the wor- 
shi)> of a (4od, a great man, a good woman, or a big purpose. In 
this s])irit, is this biography written. 



This recognition of Calvin Coolidge, all too meagre, yet lives 
out the spirit of those wise words of his to the Massachusetts 
Senate, when he was first elected President, 



"BE BRIEF.' 



TPIE LESSON 

of this brief biography, for every young American, is, that 
success comes to a man, noit because of what is around liim, 
family or fortune, but because of what is in him ; and that 
there is no end to the path, upwards, when ideals, thrift and 
courage walk hand in hand. 



Edited by 

R. M. Washburn 

8g State St., 

l)OSton, 

Notification Day 

July 27, iq2o 



THE END 



CALVIN COOLIDGE 



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